


Scandal, Season 5, Episode 13, The Fish Rots from the Head

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s05e13 The Fish Rots from the Head, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 05, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23320120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 2





	Scandal, Season 5, Episode 13, The Fish Rots from the Head

Open to Mellie and Olivia talking about Mellie’s book. Then, Olivia brings up the fact Fitz can’t endorse Susan over Mellie.

Over to the White House, Abby talks to a Secret Service agent about how to handle female guests over a montage implying Fitz is having plenty of sex. I’m hoping this means he and Lilian had an adult conversation and agreed their fun time didn’t carry an expectation of monogamy from either of them.

On a different note, the show did some good work at making minor Secret Service agent characters interesting. First was Tom and Hal, then, there was the one who gave Mellie the chips and saw her break down, and now, there’s Sam. The unnamed redheaded female agent could have turned out interesting, too, but I don’t think she was even given any lines.

Meanwhile, in the back of a car, Tom is adorably adjusting Cyrus’s tie. Asking if he’s ready, Tom brings up the possibility Vargas might not want to go on TV. Cyrus, however, thinks there’s no way Vargas won’t jump at the opportunity to go on TV. When he exits, Tom tilts his head to watch him go with a slight smile.

At this point, I still don’t think Tom and Cyrus are having sex, but this is undeniably further proof of Tom’s puppy love. The tie really isn’t evidence of anything, although, in this case, there was a sense of intimacy with how Tom did it, but out of all the ways Tom could have reacted after Cyrus left, watching him go in this way-

Inside, Vargas is happy enough to have lunch with Cyrus but is rightfully pinging to the fact something else is going on.

Sally appears, and Vargas is respectful, but once she’s out of earshot, he expresses his distaste for her.

Cyrus finds himself dealing with a moral, non-attention seeking Vargas not wanting to go on TV and exploit the tragedy of the shooting, and this is why you should pay more attention to your golden retriever, Cyrus. Tom might not be a truly active player, but in an odd, usually somewhat creepy way, he is good figuring people out and knowing how to deal with them.

However, Cyrus handles this by quietly explaining, he might not agree with what Vargas has to say, but Vargas is a public servant who has a duty to try to get a message he believes to be important out there, and as another public servant, Cyrus has a duty to help him do so. Not pressing the TV issue, he asks Vargas to, at least, come to the White House for another meeting with Fitz to discuss the education bill Vargas wants.

At the White House, Sam informs Abby there’s an issue with a party some Secret Service agents had.

The next scene has OPA going to the hotel room. Marcus continues to be the voice of morality, and Quinn’s patience for him is still almost nil. There’s a dead prostitute and an alive one in the room, and the agents swear the former falling and hitting her head was due to her being heavily intoxicated before even arriving.

Taking charge, Quinn doles out assignments, and likely speaking for a large part of the audience, Marcus protests. He’s certainly speaking for this part.

Later, Olivia and Abby are spying on Jake and Vanessa Moss. Or rather, Olivia is despite Abby pointing out what Olivia is doing isn’t healthy (or even legal, actually).

Over to David and Susan in bed, he’s urging her to get Fitz’s support, and she doesn’t particularly want the support of a man who cheated on his wife and is now having numerous one-night stands.

As I’ve said I don’t have a problem with Fitz engaging in casual sex with various women, but I largely get where she is coming from. I don’t necessarily agree a person cheating one time means they will make it a pattern of behaviour, and I know for a fact a person who cheats can still be an overall good person, but aside from my absolute loathing of Fitz for various other things, he cheated for years instead of choosing to risk his political career by sitting Mellie down at the beginning and explaining he was no longer in love with her and wanted out of the marriage.

David shows subtle guilt over the fact he’s cheating on Susan.

Later, Liz is mad at David over Susan not going after Fitz’s endorsement. However, despite said anger, she’s still up for sex.

Meanwhile, Cyrus is subtly working to put Fitz in a bad mood over having to meet with Vargas again.

Okay, even if Fitz genuinely disagrees with Vargas’s education bill, Vargas is a true hero. He didn’t just tackle Wayne to protect himself from further harm, he did it to protect all the people he willingly bargained himself to have sent out to safety. In real life, I’d like to think most government officials would be just as honoured as the average citizen would be to be able to have an actual conversation with such a person.

Furthermore, it’s been shown before Fitz does have a genuine interest in improving the nation’s education levels. So, even if he buys what Cyrus is spinning and believes Vargas is just another sleazy politician exploiting a tragedy, wouldn’t he want to, at least, try to see if he and Vargas could put their heads together to come up with something to improve the nation’s education levels? He’s worked with other self-serving politicians in the past in order to get things he believes are important.

Moving on, there’s an interesting transition of Fitz about to go into the Oval turning into Vargas entering. He’s tries to break the ice, and when this doesn’t work, he’s respectful despite his clear irritation.

Well, thanks to Fitz being an absolute jerk, Vargas is ready to go on Sally’s show.

At OPA, Quinn is worried about Olivia’s happiness, and Marcus comes in with information suggesting the Secret Service agents lied. Quinn is all, ‘This isn’t the job,’ and Marcus is all, ‘I’m not letting some men get away with it if they killed a woman. My whole M.O. is doing the exact of opposite of that.’

There’s a scene of Michael and Cyrus watching Vargas’s interview. Michael awesomely practises hair braiding on a black doll, and until Buckle Up happened, I really liked this scene. Now, it just reminds me Buckle Up exists.

When Vargas makes it clear he won’t be running, Cyrus immediately calls Tom to order him to find out why.

“Who’s Tom,” Michael inquires.

Cyrus ignores this in favour of being unable to process the idea a parent would spend their free time learning a skill for the sole purpose of providing happiness in their child.

Back in the White House, Cyrus masterfully plays Liz into further pushing Susan to get Fitz’s endorsement so as to further prod Vargas into stepping up his game.

At OPA, Marcus has the autopsy report on the dead woman. It turns out, the Secret Service agents lied. Olivia shuts him down on the idea of actually doing anything about this.

In the White House, Mellie has come to drop Teddy off. Trying to talk to Fitz, she low-key loses it when it’s revealed Fitz has a woman in the residence.

She insists on taking Teddy back.

Okay, I’m forced to admit, I’m actually more sympathetic towards Fitz in this scene than Mellie. I also don’t particularly agree with her parenting here, but then again, one of the things I find tolerable about Fitz is he truly is a good parent. He’s had bad moments, but even the best parents do.

Moving on, Mellie is ranting to Olivia about the encounter.

Next is Olivia telling OPA to get more information on the dead woman’s murder.

Meanwhile, Liz and David play good-cop, bad-cop to get Susan to go on Sally’s to decimate Vargas’s bill despite her actually agreeing with it.

Susan, unfortunately, ends up going along with this.

Aw. Susan. No.

Back in the residence, Lilian and Fitz are in bed. They start getting dressed, and she tells him about Olivia running Mellie’s campaign.

Elsewhere, in the back of a car, Tom tells Cyrus about Vargas’s five-year-old daughter. “She has cancer, Cyrus… This man is not going to run for President, his daughter is dying.”

I’m kind of surprised there isn’t a scene of Cyrus going after Ethan or, at least, ranting about Ethan’s incompetence for failing to discover this.

However, Cyrus also has an odd, sometimes creepy way of figuring people out and getting what he wants out of them, and the next scene is him telling Vargas a story of his brother being paralysed but forcing Cyrus to follow Cyrus’s dream of going to Harvard.

Jeff Perry is truly wonderful in this scene.

Onto a scene I wish I had brain bleach for, Jake invades Olivia’s bedroom, brings her close to orgasm until she stops it, and there’s more relationship drama.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Quinn get the real story out of the dead woman’s friend.

There’s a transition to Olivia telling Abby: The agents didn’t pay the woman, she fought with them and bumped her head, and instead of calling an ambulance, they pumped her full of drugs and let her die.

There’s some Fitz stuff I’m not going to bother with, and Olivia points out, technically, Abby is the client, not the agents.

Next, Olivia informs Fitz of all this before shaming him for his causal sex with multiple women.

Again, all my problems with Fitz have to do with so many other things. I’ve always believed, as long as a person is honest and makes sure to obtain full consent, it doesn’t matter if they die a virgin, have sex with a different person every night, or somewhere in between. Personally, I’d also prefer it if they tried not to be with someone who was cheating, but in the end, it’s the cheater who broke promises and failed to live up to their responsibilities, not the other person.

Aside from me not liking the shaming, Fitz is admittedly acting like a decent person here. His immediate reaction was horror, and everything suggests, if he had known from the beginning, he’d’ve already done something.

What I’m assuming is the next day, Sam and Abby are waiting by the service elevator, and Abby is incredibly happy when the door opens to reveal Susan.

I love it when people are expecting someone else and Susan pops up instead.

Based on Sam’s reaction, though, I’m not so sure he doesn’t believe Fitz wouldn’t go so far as bedding his VP. Whether this is fair to Fitz or not, I can’t say, but it’s really not fair to Susan.

Susan and Fitz sit down, and I’m not sure why Abby is staying.

Maybe she’s chaperoning?

Given Sam’s reaction, this might not be a bad idea.

Fitz gets Susan to admit she likes Vargas’s bill and was pressured into lying. He makes her promise never to lie to the American public again before saying she has his endorsement. She politely tells him, in all honesty, she doesn’t want his endorsement, but he vows to be the kind of man and President she’d be proud to have backing her.

Next is a press conference by Fitz and David about the dead woman, and it’s shown the FBI is arresting the Secret Service agents.

If this is actually how it works in real life, thank you for telling me, show. I’m always curious about who is tasked with arresting people from different branches of law enforcement when they commit a crime.

OPA are watching the conference on TV, and everyone gives Marcus props for more-or-less forcing them into doing the right thing.

Meanwhile, Vargas is at Cyrus’s house, and he asks Cyrus to run his campaign. Talking about his cancer-stricken daughter, he insists she’s going to pull through and likely go to college someday.

Michael comes out from putting Ella to bed, and he and Vargas have a nice introduction. The three of them drink a toast to Vargas’s daughter, Ella, and to Oliver.

Once Vargas leaves, it’s established Cyrus is an only child.

I’d think his story would quickly fall apart, but then, I don’t go around lying about having family members I don’t actually have, so, I wouldn’t know.

The last scene is Olivia coming to Rowan’s house where it’s revealed Jake and Vanessa are engaged.

Fin.


End file.
